Microsoft parity cause rules out Curve Digital games for Xbox One

Games such as The Swapper, MouseCraft and Titan Attacks won’t be released on Xbox One.

That, developer Curve Digital says, is because of the parity clause imposed by Microsoft on indie devs which stipulates that games are released on Xbox One at the same time they arrive on other systems.

"Unfortunately, all these titles here get ruled out by the parity clause," Curve MD Jason Perkins told Digital Spy, with design director Jonathan Biddle adding: "We feel like it’s unnecessary handcuffs really but that’s the way they’ve decided to run that."

"We’re platform agnostic. We’ll support everyone. What works for us is having many as healthy competitors as possible.”

The pair added that it still hopes that future titles not yet pencilled in for PlayStation could yet appear on Microsoft’s machine.

Curve is far from the only critic of Microsoft’s increasingly controversial parity clause.

Last year Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail said that he felt the clause was problematic.

We’ve had enough trouble with our promise for a simultaneous release for Luftrausers, so by getting rid of parity we’d be able to focus on one platform for Nuclear Throne first,” he told Joystiq.

We’d rather Microsoft allow us not only the freedom to self-publish, but also to publish in whatever order we prefer. We’ll keep pushing for Microsoft to drop the clause, and we’d recommend any other developer to do the same.”

Microsoft said last month that parity requirements are decided on a case-by-case basis.

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